1.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
2.
Azerbaijani language
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The language has official status in Azerbaijan and Dagestan but it does not have official status in Iranian Azerbaijan, where the majority of Azerbaijanis live. It is also spoken to varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe. Azerbaijani is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, modern literature in Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iranian Azerbaijan region it is based on the Tabrizi one. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe, Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region, the historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods, early and modern. Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained a larger number of Persian. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects, despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature. They all criticized the overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. Despite the wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, after independence, Azerbaijan republic decided to switch back to the Latin script. The first examples of Azerbaijani literature date to the late 1200s following the Mongol conquest and were written in Arabic script, in the 1300s Kadi Burhan al-Din, Hesenoghlu, and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as a language through poetry and other literary works. In 1875 Akinchi became the first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire and it was started by Hasan bey Zardabi, a journalist and education advocate. Following the rule of the Qajar dynasty Iran was ruled by Reza Shah who banned the publication of texts in Azerbaijani, modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iranian Azerbaijan it is based on the Tabrizi dialect. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry and his most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It was translated more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku, Ganja, Shaki, Tbilisi, since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all schools of Ganja, Shusha, Nukha, Shamakhi, Quba, Baku, Derbent, Yerevan, Nakhchivan, Akhaltsikhe. Beginning in 1834, it was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian, in 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate. Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family, the International Organization for Standardization encodes North Azerbaijani and South Azerbaijani as distinct languages
3.
Turkic languages
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The Turkic languages are a language family of at least thirty-five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples from Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China. Turkic languages are spoken as a language by some 170 million people. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish, spoken mainly in Anatolia and the Balkans, characteristic features of Turkish, such as vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of grammatical gender, are universal within the Turkic family. Apparent similarities with the Uralic languages family even caused these families to be regarded as one for a time under the hypothesis of Ural-Altaic languages. Turkic languages are languages, have vowel harmony, extensive agglutination by means of suffixes, and lack of grammatical articles, noun classes. Subject–object–verb word order is universal within the family, the geographical distribution of Turkic-speaking peoples across Eurasia ranges from the North-East of Siberia to Turkey in the West, since the Ottoman era. The two groups shared a religion, Tengrism, and there exists a multitude of evident loanwords between Turkic languages and Mongolic languages, although the loans were bidirectional, today Turkic loanwords constitute the largest foreign component in Mongolian vocabulary. The most famous of these loanwords include lion, gold, the Compendium of the Turkic Dialects, written during the 11th century AD by Kaşgarlı Mahmud of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, constitutes an early linguistic treatment of the family. The Compendium is the first comprehensive dictionary of the Turkic languages and it mainly pertains to the Southwestern branch of the family. The earliest records of the language spoken by Volga Bulgars, the parent to todays Chuvash language, are dated to the 13th–14th centuries AD. With the Turkic expansion during the Early Middle Ages, Turkic languages, in the course of just a few centuries, spread across Central Asia, various terminologies from the Turkic languages have passed into Persian, Hindustani, Russian, Chinese, and to a lesser extent, Arabic. This has obscured the historical developments within each language and/or language group, the modern genetic classification schemes for Turkic are still largely indebted to Samoilovich. It is not clear when two major types of Turkic can be assumed to have actually diverged. With less certainty, the Southwestern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Oghur groups may further be summarized as West Turkic, the following isoglosses are traditionally used in the classification of the Turkic languages, Rhoticisation, e. g. in the last consonant of the word for nine *toqqız. This separates the Oghur branch, which exhibits /r/, from the rest of Turkic, in this case, rhoticisation refers to the development of *-/r/, *-/z/, and *-/d/ to /r/, *-/k/, *-/kh/ in this branch. See Antonov and Jacques on the debate concerning rhotacism and lambdacism in Turkic and this separates Khalaj as a peripheral language. The following table is based upon the classification presented by Lars Johanson The following is a brief comparison of cognates among the basic vocabulary across the Turkic language family. Also, there may be shifts in the meaning from one language to another, in some cases the form given is found only in some dialects of the language, or a loanword is much more common
4.
Turkish language
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Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
5.
Dagestan
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The Republic of Dagestan, also spelled Daghestan, is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea. With a population of 2,910,249, Dagestan is very diverse and Russias most heterogeneous republic, with none of its several dozen ethnicities. Largest among these ethnicities are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgian, Laks, Azerbaijani, Tabasaran, ethnic Russians comprise about 3. 6% of Dagestans total population. Russian is the official language and the lingua franca among the ethnicities. Dagestan has been a scene of Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, according to International Crisis Group, the militant Islamist organization Shariat Jamaat is responsible for much of the violence. The word Dagestan is of Turkish and Persian origin, dağ means mountain in Turkish and -stan is a Persian suffix meaning land. Some areas of Dagestan were known as Albania, Avaria, the name Dagestan referred to Dagestan Oblast during 1860 to 1920, corresponding to the southeastern part of the present-day Republic. It is the southernmost part of Russia, and is bordered on its side by the Caspian Sea. Major rivers include, Sulak River Samur River Terek River Vladas River Ccenter River Dagestan has about 405 kilometers of coast line on the Caspian Sea, most of the Republic is mountainous, with the Greater Caucasus Mountains covering the south. The highest point is the Bazardüzü/Bazardyuzyu peak at 4,470 meters on the border with Azerbaijan, the southernmost point of Russia is located about seven kilometers southwest of the peak. Other important mountains are Diklosmta, Gora Addala Shukgelmezr and Gora Dyultydag, Dagestan is rich in oil, natural gas, coal, and many other minerals. The climate is hot and dry in the summer but the winters are harsh in the mountain areas, Average January temperature, +2 °C Average July temperature, +26 °C Average annual precipitation,250 to 800 mm. Dagestan is administratively divided into forty-one districts and ten cities/towns. The districts are subdivided into nineteen urban-type settlements, and 363 rural okrugs. In the first few centuries AD, Caucasian Albania became a vassal, with the advent of the Sassanian Empire, it became a satrapy within the vast domains of the empire. In later antiquity, it was a few times fought over by the Roman Empire, over the centuries, to a relatively large extent, the peoples within the Dagestan territory converted to Christianity alongside Zoroastrianism. In the 5th century AD, the Samian peregrinations took place from Ukraine to this land, during the Sassanian era, southern Dagestan became a bastion of Iranian culture and civilisation, with its centre at Derbent, and a policy of Persianisation can be traced over many centuries. In 664, the Persians were succeeded in Derbent by the Arabs, by the 15th century, Albanian Christianity had died away, leaving a 10th-century church at Datuna as the sole monument to its existence
6.
Northern Iran
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Northern Iran includes the Southern Caspian regions representing provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan of Iran. The major provinces, Gilan and Mazandaran, are covered with forests, snow-covered mountains. The major cities are Amol, Bâbol, Anzali, Rasht, Câlus, northern Iran has numerous villages, particularly Massulé, appreciated by travellers. Northern Iran was a spot during the Pahlevi era, especially amongst foreign tourists. It was a place that provided all types of modern recreational facilities as well as tourism infrastructure. Today, it’s mostly visited by domestic tourists, plain moderate climate, covering central and western plains of Mazandaran. The average annual rainfall amounts to 1200 or 1300 millimetres, mountainous climate, the high mountains and northern parts of the Alborz range. In the heights, the weather is mountainous and most of the precipitation is in the form of snow. Semi-arid climate, This climate prevails some parts of Gorgan valley, in this area, the average annual rainfall stands at 500 millimetres. Mirza Ghassemi Hyrcania Caspian Sea Reza Shah Jangali Southern Iran Eastern Iran Central Iran
7.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
8.
Armenian language
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The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages and it is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups, Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to an extent by Greek, Persian. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible and he is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. W. M. However, unlike shared innovations, the retention of archaisms is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann used the method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. Meillets hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse, eric P. Hamp supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian. Nevertheless, as Fortson comments, by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, graeco--Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC
9.
Nagorno-Karabakh
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Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mountainous and forested. Azerbaijan has not exercised political authority over the region since the advent of the Karabakh movement in 1988, the region is usually equated with the administrative borders of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast comprising an area of 4,400 square kilometres. The historical area of the region, however, encompasses approximately 8,223 square kilometres, the prefix Nagorno- derives from the Russian attributive adjective nagorny, which means highland. The Azerbaijani names of the include the similar adjectives dağlıq or yuxarı. Such words are not used in the Armenian name, but they have appeared in the name of the region during the Soviet era as Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Other languages apply their own wording for mountainous, upper, or highland, for example, the name Karabakh comprises two words, kara and bagh. Thus Karabakh literally means black garden, the name first appears in Georgian and Persian sources of the 13th and 14th centuries. Karabagh, an alternate spelling of Karabakh, denotes a kind of patterned rug originally produced in the area. Urartian inscriptions use the name Urtekhini for the region, ancient Greek sources called the area Orkhistene. Nagorno-Karabakh falls within the occupied by peoples known to modern archaeologists as the Kura-Araxes culture. The ancient population of the region consisted of various autochthonous local, according to the prevailing western theory, these natives intermarried with Armenians who came to the region after its inclusion into Armenia in the 2nd or, possibly earlier, in 4th century BC. Other scholars suggest that the Armenians settled in the region as early as in the 7th century BC, in around 180 BC, Artsakh became one of the 15 provinces of the Armenian Kingdom and remained so until the 4th century. While formally having the status of a province, Artsakh possibly formed a principality on its own — like Armenias province of Syunik, other theories suggest that Artsakh was a royal land, belonging to the King of Armenia directly. Tigran the Great, King of Armenia, founded in Artsakh one of four cities named Tigranakert after himself, the ruins of the ancient Tigranakert, located 30 miles north-east of Stepanakert, are being studied by a group of international scholars. At the time the population of Artsakh and Utik consisted of Armenians, Armenian culture and civilization flourished in the early medieval Nagorno-Karabakh. St. Mesrop was very active in preaching Gospel in Artsakh, overall, Mesrop Mashtots made three trips to Artsakh and Utik, ultimately reaching pagan territories at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus. The 7th-century Armenian linguist and grammarian Stephanos Syunetsi stated in his work that Armenians of Artsakh had their own dialect, and encouraged his readers to learn it
10.
Lezgian language
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Lezgian /ˈlɛzɡiən/, also called Lezgi or Lezgin, is a language that belongs to the Lezgic languages. It is spoken by the Lezgins, who live in southern Dagestan, Lezgian is a literary language and an official language of Dagestan. It is classified as vulnerable by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger, Lezgian is also spoken in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan by immigrants from Azerbaijan and Daghestan. There are also populations in the Balikesir and Yalova regions in Turkey. The Lezgian people are concentrated mainly in Kirne village of the Balikesir region, the total number of speakers is about 800,000. There are nine languages in the Lezgic language family, namely, Lezgian, Tabasaran, Rutul, Aghul, Tsakhur, Budukh, Kryts, Udi and these languages have the same names as their ethnic groups. Some of its dialects are considered different from the standard form. /a/ has two allophones, and, the former prevails in closed syllables, the latter in open syllables. /a/ is very often rounded after labialized consonants, which may lose their labialization. /e/ is open in stressed syllables if a vowel plus /n/ sequence is not followed by a vowel, the /n/ may be deleted, there are 54 consonants in Lezgian. Characters to the right are the letters of the Lezgian Cyrillic Alphabet, note that aspiration is not normally indicated in the orthography, despite the fact that it is phonemic. Lezgian has been written in different alphabets over the course of its history. These alphabets have been based on three scripts, Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic, the Lezgian Cyrillic alphabet is as follows, The Latin alphabet was as follows, Lezgian is unusual for a Northeast Caucasian language in not having noun classes. Standard Lezgian grammar features 18 grammatical cases, produced by agglutinating suffixes, the four grammatical cases are, Absolutive case, marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive sentence. It is also used to mark a nominal predicate and as a vocative, ergative case, marks the subject of transitive verbs, and the subject of some compound intransitive verbs. It is also used with the meaning of, the genitive case precedes the noun that it modifies. Dative case, usually marks the object of sentences, that is the recipient of an action. It is also used to mark the subject of verbs and to express a point of time
11.
Avar language
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Avar is a language that belongs to the Avar–Andic group of the Northeast Caucasian family. It is spoken mainly in the western and southern parts of the Russian Caucasus republic of Dagestan, some Avars live in other regions of Russia. There are also communities of speakers living in the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia, in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Jordan. It is spoken by about 762,000 people worldwide, UNESCO classifies Avar as vulnerable to extinction. It is one of six languages of Dagestan, where it is spoken not only by the Avar. Avar is a language, of SOV order. Adverbs do not inflect, outside of inflection for noun class in some adverbs of place, e. g. the /b/ in /ʒani-b/ inside and /t͡se-b-e/ in front. Adverbs of place also distinguish locative, allative, and ablative forms suffixally, such as /ʒani-b/ inside, /ʒani-b-e/ to the inside, /-go/ is an emphatic suffix taken by underived adjectives. There are competing analyses of the distinction transcribed in the table with the length sign ⟨ː⟩, length is part of the distinction, but so is articulatory strength, so they have been analyzed as fortis and lenis. The fortis affricates are long in the part of the contour, e. g. not in the stop part as in geminate affricates in languages such as Japanese. Laver analyzes e. g. t͡ɬː as a two-segment affricate–fricative sequence /t͡ɬɬ/, the Avar language has been written since the 15th century, in the old Georgian alphabet. From the 17th century onwards it was written in an Arabic alphabet known as ajam, as part of Soviet language re-education policies in 1928 the Ajam was replaced by a Latin alphabet, which in 1938 was in turn replaced by the current Cyrillic script. Essentially, it is the Russian alphabet plus one additional letter called palochka, as that letter cannot be typed with common keyboard layouts, it is often replaced with a capital Latin letter I, small Latin letter l or the digit 1. The Avar language is written in the Cyrillic script. The bolmacʼ in turn was derived from the dialect of Khunzakh. Nowadays the literary language is influencing the dialects, levelling out their differences, the most famous figure of modern Avar literature is Rasul Gamzatov, the Peoples Poet of Dagestan. Translations of his works into Russian have gained him an audience all over the former Soviet Union. Northeast Caucasian languages Languages of the Caucasus RFE/RL North Caucasus Radio Avar language corpus Avar Cyrillic-Latin text and website converter Online Avar–Russian dictionary
12.
Budukh language
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Budukh or Budugh is a Samur language of the Northeast Caucasian language family spoken in parts of the Quba Rayon of Azerbaijan. It is spoken by about 200 of approximately 1,000 ethnic Budukhs, Budukh is a severely endangered language, and classified as such by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Authier reports that Budugh has six classes, human masculine, human adult feminine, animate, inanimate, nonhuman plural. Verbs normally agree with their argument in gender. In the following examples, the verb beat shows animate agreement with donkey, compare these examples with the following, where the verb agrees with the intransitive subject, Budukh verbs typically agree with a single argument, the absolutive. In the agreement paradigms, the majority of verbs show no overt agreement for the masculine, neuter, due to historical changes, the relationships between the various members of an agreement paradigm are often more complex and show changes of vowel and/or consonant. Development of Introflexion in Budugh Verbs http, //www. digitorient. com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/introflexionBudugh. doc Authier, finite and Non-Finite, Prosodic Distinctions on Budugh Verb Stems. In Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy, Syntax and Pragmatics, ed. by Isabelle Bril, Budukh basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
13.
Juhuri language
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Judeo-Tat or Juhuri is the traditional language of the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan and Dagestan, now mainly spoken in Israel. The language is a form of Persian, it belongs to the group of the Iranian division of the Indo-European languages. The words Juvuri and Juvuro literally translate as Jewish and Jews, Judeo-Tat has Semitic elements on all linguistic levels. Judeo-Tat has the Hebrew sound ayin, whereas no neighbouring languages have it, Judeo-Tat is an endangered language classified as definitely endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. In the 1920s the Latin script was adapted for it, later it was written in Cyrillic, the use of the Hebrew alphabet has enjoyed renewed popularity. Judeo-Tat is a Southwest Iranian language and is more closely related to modern Persian than most other Iranian languages of the Caucasus e. g. Talysh, Ossetian. Arabic, like in modern Persian, a significant portion of the vocabulary is Arabic in origin, unlike modern Persian, Judeo-Tat has almost universally retained the original pharyngeal/uvular phonemes of Arabic e. g. /ʕæsæl/ honey, /sæbæħ/ morning. Hebrew, As other Jewish dialects, the language also has many Hebrew loan words e. g. /ʃulħon/ table, /mozol/ luck, Hebrew words are typically pronounced in the tradition of other Mizrahi Jews. Examples, ח and ע are pronounced pharyngeally, ק is pronounced as a uvular plosive. g. Горские Евреи Америки Mountain Jews of the US
14.
Khinalug language
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Khinalug is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 1,500 people in the villages of Khinalug and Gülüstan, Quba in the mountains of Quba Rayon, northern Azerbaijan. It forms its own independent branch within the Northeast Caucasian language family, Khinalug is endangered, and classified as severely endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Khinalug is the language of the village Khinalug in the Quba district of Azerbaijan, Khinalug is considered to be a threatened language. This is in due to the breaking down of a road that leads into the village. The following words were phonetically transcribed from Khinalug, Note, ı is roughly pronounced as the e in fallen, U is roughly pronounced as the ou in coup. Clifton, John M. Deckinga, Gabriela, Lucht, Laura, Mak, Janfer, Tiessen, Calvin, the Sociolinguistic Situation of the Khinalug In Azerbaijan. Introduction to the Study of the Languages of the Caucasus, in, The Indigenous Languages of the Caucasus, vol. 4, Rieks Smeets, Caravan Books, Delmar, appendix, Cyrillic script Khinalug basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database Khinalug tongue&culture New Khinalug alphabet
15.
Kryts language
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Kryts is a Samur language of the Northeast Caucasian language family spoken in parts of the Quba Rayon of Azerbaijan by 6,000 people in 1975. Its dialects are Kryts, Jek, Khaput, Yergyudzh, and Alyk, Kryts is endangered, classified as severely endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Kryts basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
16.
Rutul language
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Rutul is a language spoken by the Rutuls, an ethnic group living in Dagestan and some parts of Azerbaijan. It is spoken by 30,000 people in Dagestan and 17,000 in Azerbaijan, the word Rutul derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority. Rutul is endangered in Russia and classified as endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Rutul belongs to the Lezgic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family, the Rutuls call their language mîchjabišdî ċel. Rutul was not a written language until the system for it was developed in 1990. A Latin alphabet was developed in 2013 based on the Shin-Shorsu dialect, speakers are often bilingual or multilingual, having a good command of the Azeri, Lezgian and/or Russian languages. There are 8 dialects and 2 subdialects of Rutul, the literary version of the language remains in the process of development. In the Rutul-populated regions of southern Russia, Rutul is taught in primary schools, among the languages of the Lezgic group, Tsakhur appears to be the closest relative of Rutul. Other than these two, there are seven more languages in the Lezgic group, namely, Lezgian, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budukh, Kryts, Udi and Archi
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Tsakhur language
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Tsakhur is a language spoken by the Tsakhurs in northern Azerbaijan and southwestern Dagestan. It is spoken by about 13,000 people in Azerbaijan, the word Tsakhur derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority. Tsakhur is classified as endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Tsakhur belongs to the Lezgic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family, the Tsakhurs call their language Caiχna miz. The first written documentation of Tsakhur dates back to 1895 and is attributed to Roderich von Erckert, the first description of Tsakhur grammar was published by Adolf Dirr in 1913. In the 1930s, a form of Tsakhur was developed. Starting from 1934, the language was taught in schools in Azerbaijan and Dagestan. In 1938, the use of literary Tsakhur in Azerbaijan was discontinued but regained its status in 1989, the Tsakhur alphabet in Azerbaijan is based on the Latin script, whereas in Dagestan the language uses Cyrillic. In the past there have been attempts to write Tsakhur in the Arabic script, in 2008, Arif Rustamov directed the first and so far only feature film in Tsakhur called Facing Back to the Qibla. Tsakhur is spoken mostly in areas of Azerbaijans Zaqatala and Qakh rayons. There are 15,900 Tsakhurs in Azerbaijan and 10,400 in Russia, in 1989, 93% of them reported Tsakhur as their first language. In Azerbaijan and Russia, Tsakhur is taught as a subject in schools in Tsakhur-populated regions. Newspapers and radio broadcast in Tsakhur are also available, however the language does not have an official status. Among the languages of the Lezgic group, Rutul appears to be the closest one to Tsakhur, other than these two, there are eight more languages in the Lezgic group, namely, Lezgian, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budukh, Kryts, Khinalugh, Udi, and Archi. Similar to many Northeast Caucasian languages, Tsakhur is known for its complex phonology and its first in-depth phonological description was provided by Nikolai Trubetzkoy in 1931. The consonant inventory, according to Shulzes study of the language, forms are phonemic unless placed in square brackets, in which case they are suspected to be phonemes but currently with incomplete evidence for this. The inventory shows some asymmetries, but exhibits series of palatalized, labialized,1 Tsakhur has 18 grammatical cases and has retained suffixaufnahme. Verbs may have singular and plural forms, and 7 grammatical moods, in contrast to the related languages, Tsakhur sentences can be formed by affective construction
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Tat language (Caucasus)
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The Tat language or Tat/Tati Persian or Tati is a Southwestern Iranian language related to, but mutually unintelligible with Persian and spoken by the Tats in Azerbaijan and Russia. Its written form is related to Middle Persian Pahlavi, there is also an Iranian language called Judeo-Tat spoken by Jews of Caucasus. The Tats are an indigenous Iranian people in the Caucasus who trace their origin to the Sassanid-period migrants from Iran, Tat is endangered, classified as severely endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Most scholars divide Tat into two varieties, Jewish and Muslim, with religious differences correlating with linguistics differences. Another, almost extinct variety of Tat is spoken by Christians of Armenian origin, according to him, The Great Russian Encyclopedia of 1901 gives the number of Tati speakers in 1901 as 135,000. In the 1930s, Minorsky estimated the number of Tati speakers to be 90,000, not all likely speak Tati, and this does not include the more rural locations that were not reached by the census. It is vital to stress that the Tats are one of the most assimilated of Azerbaijan’s ethnic groups and this is particularly true for urban Tats. All of this makes it difficult to identify the number of the Tat ethnic group. The adults in most of the mountain and foothill communities reported they use Tat as their language of interaction. They speak Tat with each other, but speak Azerbaijani with their children so that they learn the language before beginning school. If the wife in the family is non-Tat speaking, however, in the villages of Lahıc and Zǝyvǝ, women who marry in are reported to learn Tat. Research has demonstrated that the word “Tat” does not have an ethnic origin and this is the term the Turks used to denote the settled Iranian-speaking population of Azerbaijan. This is proven by the names some groups of the Tat population have given themselves, for example, the residents of the Apsheron settlements of Balakhany and Surakhany call themselves Pars, and those of the settlement of Lagich in the Ismailly district the Lohudj. It must be mentioned that in the 19th century, cattle herders called the workers from southern Azerbaijan Tat. The town of Mǝlhǝm is largely Tat, Mǝlhǝm lies 6 km north of Şamaxı town on the A12 road. An estimated 1,500 residents live in Mǝlhǝm, a higher than five years ago. The increase in population is due to an increase in birth rate. According to the mayor, while approximately 10–15% of residents go to Baku to study or work, ethnically, the village is made up entirely of Tats, with the exception of a handful of ethnic Azerbaijani brides
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Udi language
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The Udi language, spoken by the Udi people, is a member of the Lezgic branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family. It is believed a form of it was the main language of Caucasian Albania. The Old Udi language is called the Caucasian Albanian language. Modern Udi is known simply as Udi, the language is spoken by about 4,000 people in the Azerbaijani village of Nij in Qabala rayon, in Oghuz rayon, as well as in parts of the North Caucasus in Russia. Udi is endangered, classified as endangered by UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Old Udi was an ergative–absolutive language, Udi is agglutinating with a tendency towards being fusional. Udi affixes are mostly suffixes or infixes, but there are a few prefixes, most affixes are restricted to specific parts of speech. Udi does not have gender, but has declension classes, Old Udi, however, did reflect grammatical gender within anaphoric pronouns. Old Udi, unlike modern Udi, did not have the front rounded vowel ö, Old Udi contained an additional series of palatalized consonants. The Old Udi language used the Caucasian Albanian alphabet, in the 1930s, there was an attempt by Soviet authorities to create an Udi alphabet based on the Latin alphabet but its usage ceased after a short time. In 1974, a Udi alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet was compiled V. L. Gukasyan and this alphabet was also used in the 1996 collection Nana oččal. In the mid-1990s, a new Latin-based Udi alphabet was created in Azerbaijan, a primer and two collections of works by Georgy Kechaari were published using it and it was also used for educational purposes in the village of Nic. In 2013 in Russia, an Udi primer Nanay muz was published with a Cyrillic-based alphabet, the alphabet is as follows, Languages of the Caucasus Harris, Alice C. Endoclitics and the Origins of Udi Morphosyntax, the Sociolinguistic Situation of the Udi in Azerbaijan – John M. Clifton, Deborah A. Clifton, The Sociolinguistic Situation of the Udi in Azerbaijan
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Endangered language
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An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or shift to speaking another language. Language loss occurs when the language has no native speakers. If eventually no one speaks the language at all, it becomes an extinct language, a dead language may still be observed and studied through recordings or written text, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. More-commonly spoken languages dominate the less-commonly spoken languages and so the latter eventually disappear, the total number of languages in the world is not known. Estimates vary depending on many factors, the general consensus is that there are between 6000 and 7000 languages currently spoken, and that between 50 and 90% of them will have become extinct by 2100. To recognize an endangered languages, the stages of language extinction follow five steps, the first step is potential endangerment. This is when a language faces endangerment, but there are still a few speakers who are keeping the language current, once a language has reached the endangerment stage, there are only a few speakers left, risking the chances of the language surviving much longer. The third stage of language extinction is seriously endangered, during this stage, a language is unlikely to survive another generation and will soon be extinct. The fourth stage is moribund, followed by the fifth stage extinction, UNESCO operates with four levels of language endangerment beyond safe, based on intergenerational transfer, vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered, and critically endangered. Using an alternative scheme of classification, linguist Michael E, There is a general consensus that the loss of languages harms the cultural diversity of the world. Many projects are under way aimed at preventing or slowing this loss by revitalizing endangered languages and promoting education, across the world, many countries have enacted specific legislation aimed at protecting and stabilizing the language of indigenous speech communities. A few linguists have argued that loss is a natural process that should not be counteracted. The total number of languages in the world is not known. Estimates vary depending on the extent and means of the research undertaken, and the definition of a distinct language, the number of known languages varies over time as some of them become extinct and others are newly discovered. An accurate amount of languages in the world was not yet known until the use of universal, the majority of linguists in the early twentieth century refrained from making estimates. Before then, estimates were frequently the product of guesswork and very low, one of the most active research agencies is SIL International, which maintains a database, Ethnologue, kept up to date by the contributions of linguists globally. Ethnologues 2005 count of languages in its database, excluding duplicates in different countries, was 6,912, of which 32. 8% were in Asia and this contemporary tally must be regarded as a variable number within a range. Areas with a large number of languages that are nearing extinction include, Eastern Siberia, Central Siberia, Northern Australia, Central America
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Azerbaijani Popular Front Party
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The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party is an opposition political party in Azerbaijan, founded in 1992 by Abulfaz Elchibey. After Elchibeys death in 2000, the party split into two factions, the wing led by Ali Kerimli and the classical wing led by Mirmahmud Miralioglu. During 5 November 2000 parliamentary elections, the party won 11. 0% of the vote and 6 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. Its candidate Gudrat Hasanguliyev won only 0. 4% of the vote in the 15 October 2003 presidential elections. At the parliamentary elections of 6 November 2005, APF joined the Freedom block, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan was an organisation in Azerbaijan that united a number of informal public organisations into one, working towards independence from the Soviet Union. PFA came to unite a number of public organizations which were established in the 1980s to struggle for the independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union. As a result of this step, a large-scale campaign of public demonstrations. Later the movement was suppressed by the forces of the Ministry of Defense. Despite this fact, Popular Front of Azerbaijan was established and Yurd became a part of this movement. In September 1989 the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan, under pressure from PFA and its members in the SC, adopted the law on Economic Sovereignty of Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In order to stop the growing popularity of PFA, and to stop the pogroms of Armenians that left more than 130 Armenians dead, in January 1990. Some 130 civilians were killed and 600 wounded, the main purpose of the Baku operation, headed by Dmitriy Yazov - Minister of Defense of former USSR, was to destroy the political structures of PFA. In 1992, Abulfaz Elchibey, the leader of PFA, won the countrys first ostensibly democratic presidential elections, a period of political, social and economic reforms followed. The laws on parties, freedom of press, education. The country chose a pro-western liberal economic course and implemented successful monetary policy with the establishment of national currency, the most popular innovations were the administrative reforms and the reforms directed towards the creation of civil society. As the result of firm and consistent policies of PFA, Russian army was withdrawn from Azerbaijan in April 1993. Azerbaijan became the first republic in the former USSR and one of the first in the former Socialist bloc which succeeded in achieving a full, the president Abulfaz Elchibey was forced to leave the capital city. Thousands of people were arrested, members of PFA became victims of political terror, in fact, this was the second largest attack on PFA in order to destroy this organization completely, while the leader was out of the capital city
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Heydar Aliyev
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Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev or Geidar Aliev, also spelled Haydar Aliev or Geidar Aliev, was the was the third President of Azerbaijan who served from October 1993 to October 2003. As the president of his country he was indeed a powerful politician. As a young man he had joined the Azerbaijan SSR Peoples Commissariat for State Security, within a few years of his entry into the political world he proved himself to be a very intelligent, hardworking and shrewd politician, eventually becoming the chairman of the agency. Even though initially he implemented reforms to curb corruption and gained the trust of his citizens, over a period of time he became notorious for his repressive and autocratic rule. He came to power at a time when Azerbaijan was in the throes of political and economic crises, however, the rising rate of corruption and violence made him lose favor with the Azerbaijanis. Many of the details of Aliyevs early life are obscure, according to his website, he was born in Nakhchivan City. After graduating from Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, from 1939 to 1941 Aliyev attended the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute, in 1949 and 1950, he studied at the USSR MGB Officer Corps Qualifications-Raising School. Aliyevs official biography stated that he studied at Baku State University. According to American journalist Pete Earley, Aliyev first attended the Ministry of State Security Academy in Leningrad, in 1948, he married Zarifa Aliyeva. On 12 October 1955, their daughter Sevil was born, on 24 December 1961, their son Ilham was born. Zarifa died of cancer in 1985, Aliyev joined the Azerbaijan SSR Peoples Commissariat for State Security in 1944. In 1954, as part of a government reform, NKGB became known as Committee for State Security, or the KGB. Aliyev rose quickly within the agency to the rank of Major-General, became a deputy chairman of Azerbaijani KGB in 1964, its chairman in 1967 and rose to the rank of a major general. In the early 1980s, Aliyev barred the offspring of certain legal personnel from attending the Republics law school, in 1977, even in Brezhnevs time, he visited Iran, Mashhad twice and Kerbala once. During the period of his leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan, Aliyevs efforts led to increased economic. Aliyev became perhaps the most successful leader, raising the profile of the underprivileged republic. Aliyev thus attained the highest position reached by an Azerbaijani in the Soviet Union. In October 1987, Aliyev resigned from this post as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the SSR and, personally, as head of the KGBs branch in Azerbaijan, Aliyev ran an anti-corruption campaign
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Isfahan Province
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Isfahan province, also transliterated as Esfahan, Espahan, Isfahan, or Isphahan, is one of the thirty-one provinces of Iran. It is located in the center of the country in Irans Region 2 and its secretariat is located in the city of Isfahan. The Isfahan province covers an area of approximately 107,027 square km and is situated in the center of Iran, to its north, stand the Markazi Province and the provinces of Qom and Semnan. To its south, it is bordered by the provinces of Fars, aminabad is the most southern city of Isfahan province just 2 km north of the border. To the east, it is bordered by the province of Yazd, to the west, it is bordered by the province of Lurestan and to the southwest by the province of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiyari. According to the census in the year 2006, the population of the province was 4,559,256 of which approximately 83.3 percent were urban residents and 16.7 percent resided in the rural areas, the literacy rate was 88.65 percent. In 2011 population of Isfahan grew up to 4,879,312, the province experiences a moderate and dry climate on the whole, ranging between 40.6 °C and 10.6 °C on a cold day in the winter season. The average annual temperature has been recorded as 16.7 °C, the city of Sepahan however experiences an excellent climate, with four distinct seasons. With an elevation of 4,040 metres, the Shahankuh is the highest peak in Isfahan Province and this mountain is located about 20 kilometres southwest of the city of Fereydunshahr in the western part of Isfahan Province. Historians have recorded Espahan, Sepahan or Isfahan initially as a defense and these historical castles were Atashgah, Sarooyieh, Tabarok, Kohan Dej, and Gard Dej to name a few. The oldest of these is Ghaleh Sefeed and the grounds at Tamijan from prehistoric times, the historic village of Abyaneh, a nationwide attraction, also has Sassanid ruins and fire temples among other historical relics. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Isfahan province enjoyed high standards of prosperity as it became the capital of Safavid Persia, while the city of Sepahan was their seat of monarchy, Kashan was their place of vacation and leisure. Isfahan province encompasses various sects today, the majority of the people in the province are Persian speakers, but Bakhtiari Lurs, Georgians, Armenians, Qashqais and Persian Jews also reside in the province. The official language of the province is Persian, though different ethnic groups and tribes abide by their own such as Judeo-Persian, Armenian, Georgian. Isfahan province is noted for its reputed personalities such as writers, poets and other eminent figures who have been born, london, J. Murray and Royal Geographical Society. The Georgians’ position in the Iranian history and civilization, Sepahan, Yekta Rahimi, the Georgians of Iran, Fereydunshahr, Sepahan, Yekta Sepiani, M. Georgian Iranians, Sepahan, Arash Isfahans tourist exhibition mentions the Georgians from Fereydunshahr and Fereydan. The report of this exhibition is available in the web site of the Iranian Cultural Heritage News agency. com Naein News
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Rey, Iran
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Rey or Ray, also known as Rhages and formerly as Arsacia, is the capital of Rey County in Tehran Province of Iran, and the oldest existing city in the province. Ray today has been absorbed into the Greater Tehran metropolitan area, Ray is connected via the Tehran Metro to the rest of Tehran and has many industries and factories in operation. Note on spelling, According to the Iranian Chamber Society, the spelling of the city in both English and Persian is Ray, though variations in spelling also exist. The city university also uses the spelling Ray, as does the Encyclopædia Iranica published by Columbia University, a settlement began here c 6,000 BCE as part of the Central Plateau Culture. The settlement was used as a capital by the Arsacids called Rhaga, in Classical Greco-Roman geography it was called Rhagae. It is mentioned several times in the Apocrypha and its name dates back to the pre-Median period. Some historians attribute its building to ancient mythological monarchs, and some believe that Ray was the seat of a dynasty of Zoroastrian leader. During the Seleucid period, Alexander the Greats general Seleucus I Nicator renamed the city as Europos, Rey is also shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map. It has been home to pillars of science like Rhazes, Rey was one of the capital cities of the Seljuq Empire in the 11th century. In the 13th century after the Mongol conquest the town was severely damaged, there is also a shrine there, dedicated to commemorate Princess Shahr Banu, eldest daughter of the last ruler of the Sassanid Empire. She gave birth to Ali Zayn al Abidin, the fourth holy Imam of the Shia faith and this was through her marriage to Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. A nearby mountain is named after her. In the middle of the 19th century Ray was described as place of ruins, being the only important pilgrimage site in vicinity to the royal court in the new capital Tehran brought more people to visit the shrine and a major restoration was sponsored by the court. Thus Ray was the first place in Iran to be connected to the capital by a railroad in 1888, the shrine contains the tomb of ‘Abdul ‘Adhīm ibn ‘Abdillāh al-Hasanī, a fifth generation descendant of Hasan ibn ‘Alī and a companion of Muhammad al-Taqī. He was entombed here after his death in the 9th century, some of the discovered objects are displayed at museums in Iran, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The hill, which is now leveled out and most artifacts unrecoverable due to real estate expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, was the home of Aryans about 6,000 years ago. Since Ray was used as a center due to its beautiful attractions under the reign of the Qajar dynasty. In 1831 his portrait and that of some Qajar princes were engraved on a rock at Cheshmeh Ali hill, Tuğrul Tower, constructed under the Seljuqs at the order of Tuğrul Beg in 1140, once he transferred the capital city from Nishapur to Ray
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Hamadan
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Hamadān or Hamedān is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 473,149, Hamadan is believed to be among the oldest Iranian cities and one of the oldest in the world. It is possible that it was occupied by the Assyrians in 1100 BCE, Hamadan has a green mountainous area in the foothills of the 3, 574-meter Alvand Mountain, in the midwest part of Iran. The city is 1,850 meters above sea level, the special nature of this old city and its historic sites attract tourists during the summer to this city, located approximately 360 kilometres southwest of Tehran. The main symbols of city are the Ganj Nameh inscription, the Avicenna monument. The majority of the population is Persian, however, there is a considerable Azerbaijani minority, according to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Hamadan is a very old city. Hamadan was established by the Medes and was the capital of the Median Empire and it then became one of several capital cities of the Achaemenid Dynasty. Hamadan is mentioned in the book of Ezra as the place where a scroll was found giving the Jews permission from King Darius to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Its ancient name of Ecbatana is used in the Ezra text, because it was a mile above sea level, it was a good place to preserve leather documents. During the Parthian era, Ctesiphon was the capital of the country, after the Parthians, the Sassanids constructed their summer palaces in Hamadan. In the year 633 the battle of Nahavand took place and Hamadan fell into the hands of the Muslim Arabs, during the Buwayhids, the city suffered much damage. In the 11th century, the Seljuks shifted their capital from Baghdad to Hamadan, the city of Hamadan, its fortunes following the rise and fall of regional powers, was completely destroyed during the Timurid invasion. During the Safavid era, the city thrived, Hamadan stands on the Silk Road, and even in recent centuries the city enjoyed strong commerce and trade as a result of its location on the main road network in the western region of Persia and Iran. During World War I, the city was the scene of fighting between Russian and Turko-German forces. It was occupied by both armies, and finally by the British, before it was returned to control of the Iranian government at the end of the war in 1918, Hamadan province lies in a temperate mountainous region to the east of Zagros. The vast plains of the north and northeast of the province are influenced by strong winds, the various air currents of this region are, the north and north west winds of the spring and winter seasons, which are usually humid and bring rainfall. Hamadan is in the vicinity of the Alvand mountains and has a dry continental climate, in transition with a cold semi-arid climate. In fact, it is one of the coldest cities in Iran, the temperature may drop below −30 °C on the coldest days
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Azerbaijan (Iran)
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Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Iranian Azerbaijan is administratively divided into West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, the region is mostly populated by Azerbaijanis, with minority populations of Kurds, Armenians, Tats, Talysh, Assyrians and Persians. Historic Azerbaijan was called Atropatene in antiquity and Aturpatakan in the pre-Islamic Middle Ages, some refer to Iranian Azerbaijan as South Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan as Northern Azerbaijan, although others believe that these terms are irredentist and politically motivated. Since then the Azerbaijani people have been partitioned between nations, the territories south of the Aras River, which comprised the region historically known as Azerbaijan, became the new north-west frontier of the Persian Empire and later Iran. The name Azerbaijan itself is derived from Atropates, the Persian Satrap of Medea in the Achaemenid empire, Atropates name is believed to be derived from the Old Persian roots meaning protected by fire. The name is mentioned in the Avestan Frawardin Yasht, âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide which translates literally to. The name Atropat in Middle Persian was transformed to Adharbad and is connected with Zoroastrianism, a famous Zoroastrian priest by the name Adarbad Mahraspandan is well known for his counsels. Thus, until 1918, when the Musavat regime decided to name the newly independent state Azerbaijan, the oldest kingdom known in Iranian Azerbaijan is that of the Mannea who ruled a region south-east of Lake Urmia centred around modern Saqqez. The Manneans were a confederation of Iranian and non-Iranian groups, according to Professor Zadok, it is unlikely that there was any ethnolinguistic unity in Mannea. Like other peoples of the Iranian plateau, the Manneans were subjected to an ever increasing Iranian penetration, the Mannaeans were conquered and absorbed by an Iranian people called Matieni, and the country was called Matiene, with Lake Urmia called Lake Matianus. Matiene was later conquered by the Medes and became a satrapy of the Median empire, after Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he appointed as governor the Persian general Atropates, who eventually established an independent dynasty. The region, which came to be known as Atropatene or Media Atropatene, was much disputed, in the 2nd century BC, it was liberated from Seleucid domination by Mithradates I of Arsacid dynasty, and was later made a province of the Sassanid Empire of Ardashir I. Under the Sassanids, Azerbaijan was ruled by a marzubān, and, towards the end of the period, large parts of the region were conquered by the Kingdom of Armenia. Large parts of the made up part of historical Armenia. The parts of historical Armenia within what is modern-day Azerbaijan comprise, Nor Shirakan, Vaspurakan, Vaspurakan, of which large parts were located in what is modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan is described as the cradle of Armenian civilization. On 26 May 451 AD, an important battle was fought that would prove immensely pivotal in Armenian history. On the Avarayr Plain, at what is modern-day Churs, the Armenian Army under Vardan Mamikonian clashed with Sassanid Persia, heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, briefly held the region in the 7th century until peace was made with the Sassanids. After the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Arab invaders converted most of its people to Islam, rustam himself was born in Azerbaijan and led the Sasanian army into battle
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Greater Khorasan
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Khorasan is a historical region lying in the northeast of Persia. Khorasan in its proper sense comprised principally the cities of Balkh and Herat, Mashhad and Nishapur, Merv and Nisa, and Bukhara and Samarkand. Some believe that at certain times Khorasan covered an area, which included parts of Transoxiana, Soghdiana, Sistan. Sources from the 14th to the 16th century report that areas in the south of the Hindu Kush mountain range formed a frontier between Khorasan and Hindustan, in the Islamic period, Persian Iraq and Khorasan were the two important territories. The boundary between these two was the surrounding the cities of Gurgan and Qumis. In particular, the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, and Timurids divided their empires into Iraqi, the adjective Greater is added these days to distinguish the historical region from the Khorasan Province of Iran, which roughly encompassed the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan. The name Khorāsān is derived from Middle Persian Khwarāsān, a compound of khwar, thus the name Khorasan means land where the sun rises or east. The Persian word Khāvar-zamīn, meaning the land, has also been used as an equivalent term. First established as an entity by the Sassanids, the borders of the region have varied considerably during its 1. Initially the Khorasan province of Sassanid empire included the cities of Nishapur, Herat, Merv, Faryab, Taloqan, Balkh, Bukhara, Badghis, Abiward, Gharjistan, Tus or Susia, Sarakhs and Gurgan. It acquired its greatest extent under the Caliphs, for whom Khorasan was the name of one of the three political zones under their dominion. Under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, Khorasan was divided into four sections or quarters, each section based on a single major city, Nishapur, Merv, Herat. In the Middle Ages, the term was applied in Persia to all its territories that lay east and north east of Dasht-e Kavir. Ghobar uses the terms Proper Khorasan and Improper Khorasan in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasan in its sense and its usage in a loose sense. Improper Khorasans boundaries extended to as far as Hazarajat and Kabul in the east, Sistan and Baluchistan in the south, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the north, and Damghan and Gorgan in the west. It is mentioned in the Memoirs of Babur that, The people of Hindustān call every country beyond their own Khorasān, in the manner as the Arabs term all except Arabia. On the road between Hindustān and Khorasān, there are two great marts, the one Kābul, the other Kandahār. Caravans, from Ferghāna, Tūrkestān, Samarkand, Balkh, Bokhāra, Hissār and this country lies between Hindustān and Khorasān
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Balkh
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Balkh was an ancient city and centre of Buddhism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif. It was one of the cities of Khorasan, since the latters earliest history. Marco Polo described Balkh as a noble and great city, the ancient city of Balkh was known to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra, giving its name to Bactria. It was mostly known as the centre and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan, Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some 12 km from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m. Outside the town was a large Buddhist monastery later known as Naubahar, french Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, elevated candle as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, the name of the province or country appears in Old Persian inscriptions as Bāxtri, i. e. Bakhtri. It is written in the Avesta as Bāxδi, from this came the intermediate form Bāxli, Sanskrit Bahlīka for Bactrian, and by transposition the modern Persian Balx, i. e. Balkh, and Armenian Bahl. Balkh is considered to be the first city to which the Indo-Iranian tribes moved from the North of Amu Darya, the Arabs called it Umm Al-Belaad or Mother of Cities due to its antiquity. The city was traditionally a center of Zoroastrianism, the name Zariaspa, which is either an alternate name for Balkh or a term for part of the city, may derive from the important Zoroastrian fire temple Azar-i-Asp. Balkh was regarded as the place where Zoroaster first preached his religion, the changing climate has led to desertification since antiquity, when the region was very fertile. For a long time the city and country was the seat of the dualistic Zoroastrian religion. Armenian sources state that the Arsacid Dynasty of the Parthian Empire established its capital in Balkh, there is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita was to be found here, a temple so rich it invited plunder. Alexander the Great married Roxana of Bactria after killing the king of Balkh, the city was the capital of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and was besieged for three years by the Seleucid Empire. Balkh town is well-known to Buddhist countries because of two great Buddhist monks of Afghanistan – Trapusa and Bahalika, there are two stupas over their relics. According to a legend, Buddhism was introduced in Balkh by Bhallika, disciple of Buddha. He was a merchant of the region and had come from Bodhgaya, in literature, Balkh has been described as Balhika, Valhika or Bahlika. First Vihara at Balkh was built for Bhallika when he returned home after becoming a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang visited Balkh in 630 when it was a flourishing centre of Hinayana Buddhism
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Zoroastrianism
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Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, as its Supreme Being. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633-654, recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million, with most living in India and in Iran. Besides the Zoroastrian diaspora, the older Mithraic faith Yazdânism is still practised amongst Kurds, the religious philosophy of Zoroaster divided the early Iranian gods of Proto-Indo-Iranian tradition. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, in Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda, through the Spenta Mainyu is an all-good father of Asha, in opposition to Druj and no evil originates from him. He and his works are evident to humanity through the six primary Amesha Spentas, Spenta Mainyu adjoined unto truth oppose the Spirits opposite, Angra Mainyu and its forces born of Akəm Manah. In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to be among those who renew the world. to make the progress towards perfection. Its basic maxims include, Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean, Good Thoughts, Good Words, there is only one path and that is the path of Truth. Do the right thing because it is the thing to do. The full name by which Zoroaster addressed the deity is, Ahura, The Lord Creator and he proclaimed that there is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe. He also stated that human beings are given a right of choice, Zoroasters teachings focused on responsibility, and did not introduce a devil per se. The contesting force to Ahura Mazda was called Angra Mainyu, or angry spirit, post-Zoroastrian scripture introduced the concept of Ahriman, the Devil, which was effectively a personification of Angra Mainyu. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the name Zarathustra and he is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which combines Mazda- with the Avestan language word yasna, meaning worship, in English, an adherent of the faith is commonly called a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustrian. An older expression still used today is Behdin, meaning The best Religion | Beh < Middle Persian Weh + Din < Middle Persian dēn < Avestan Daēnā. In Zoroastrian liturgy the term is used as a title for an individual who has formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony. The term Mazdaism /ˈmæzdə. ɪzəm/ is a typical 19th century construct, taking Mazda- from the name Ahura Mazda, the March 2001 draft edition of the Oxford English Dictionary also records an alternate form, Mazdeism, perhaps derived from the French Mazdéisme, which first appeared in 1871. In older English sources, the terms Gheber and Gueber were used to refer to Zoroastrians, however, Zoroastrian philosophy is identified as having been known to Italian Renaissance Europe through an image of Zoroaster in Raphaels School of Athens by Giorgio Vasari in 1550. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the term Zoroastrianism in 1874 in Archibald Sayces Principles of Comparative Philology, Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord
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Fars Province
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Fars Province also known as Pars or Persia in historical context, is one of the thirty-one provinces of Iran and known as the cultural capital of Iran. It is in the south of the country, in Irans Region 2 and it has an area of 122,400 km². In 2011, this province had a population of 4.6 million people, of which 67. 6% were registered as urban dwellers,32. 1% villagers, and 0. 3% nomad tribes. The etymology of the word Persian, found in many ancient names associated with Iran, is derived from the importance of this region. Fars Province is the homeland of the Persian people. The word Fârs is derived from
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Khuzestan Province
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Khuzestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and its capital is Ahvaz and it covers an area of 63,238 km2. In 2014 it was placed in Region 4, as the Iranian province with the oldest history, it is often referred to as the birthplace of the nation, as this is where the history of the Elamites begins. Historically, one of the most important regions of the Ancient Near East, Khuzestan is what historians refer to as ancient Elam, the Achaemenid Old Persian term for Elam was Hujiyā when they conquered it from the Elamites, which is present in the modern name. Khuzestan, meaning the Land of the Khuz refers to the inhabitants of this province. In Middle Persian the term evolves into Khuz and Kuzi, the pre-Islamic Partho-Sasanian Inscriptions gives the name of the province as Khwuzestan. The seat of the province has for the most of its history been in the reaches of the land, first at Susa. This town is now known as Ahvaz, however, later in the Sasanian time and throughout the Islamic era, the provincial seat returned and stayed at Shushtar, until the late Qajar period. With the increase in the international sea commerce arriving on the shores of Khuzistan, the River Karun is navigable all the way to Ahvaz. The town was refurbished by the order of the Qajar king, Naser al-Din Shah and renamed after him. Shushtar quickly declined, while Ahvaz/Nâseri prospered to the present day, currently, Khuzestan has 18 representatives in Irans parliament, the Majlis, and 6 representatives in the Assembly of Experts. Khuzestan is known for its diversity, the population of Khuzestan consists of Lurs, Iranian Arabs, Qashqai people, Afshar tribe, indigenous Persians. Khuzestans population is predominantly Shia Muslim, but there are small Christian, Jewish, Sunni, half of Khuzestans population is Lurs. The name Khuzestan means The Land of the Khuzi, and refers to the inhabitants of this province. The name of the city of Ahvaz also has the same origin as the name Khuzestan, being an Arabic broken plural from the compound name, Suq al-Ahvaz --the medieval name of the town, that replaced the Sasanian Persian name of the pre-Islamic times. The entire province was known as the Khudhi or the Khooji until the reign of the Safavid king Tahmasp I. The southern half of the province—south, southwest of the Ahwaz Ridge, had come by the 17th century to be known—at least to the imperial Safavid chancery as Arabistan. The contemporaneous history, the Alamara-i Abbasi by Iskandar Beg Munshi, written during the reign of king Abbas I, the northern half continued to be called Khuzestan
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Ibn Hawqal
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Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th-century Muslim Arab writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ, the date of his death is not precisely known. On the basis of his writings, he died after 368 H /978 C. E, what little is known of his life is extrapolated from his book, which was a revision and extension of the Masālik ul-Mamālik of Istakhri. That itself was an edition of the Ṣuwar al-aqālīm of Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi. Ibn Hawqal was clearly more than an editor, he was a traveler who spent much of his writing about the areas. He spent the last 30 years of his traveling to remote parts of Asia. One of his travels brought him 20° south of the equator along the East African coast, one of the things he noticed was that there were large numbers of people living in areas that the Greeks, working from logic rather than experience, said must be uninhabitable. His descriptions were, at the time, considered to be accurate, Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ included a detailed description of Muslim-held Spain and particularly Sicily. Ibn Hawqal recorded that the area of Fraxinet was richly cultivated by its Muslim inhabitants, in doing this he frequently exaggerates, he depicts the Christian population of Palermo as being uncivilised and barbaric. He also mentions the Lands of the Romans, the used by the Muslim world -and the Byzantines themselves- to describe the Byzantine Empire. He also mentions and published a map of Sindh, he mentions the geography and culture of Sindh. Ibn Hauqals work was published by M. J. de Goeie, an anonymous epitome of the book was written in 1233. Muslim scholars List of Shia Muslims James, Preston Everett, all Possible Worlds, A History of Geography. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Vernet, J. Ibn Ḥawqal Abūl-Qāsim Muḥammad, encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures
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Istakhri
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Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al Istakhri was a Persian medieval geographer in medieval Islam and traveler of the 10th century. Estakhri created the earliest known account of windmills and his Arabic language works included masalik al-mamalik and Suwar al-Aqaaleem. He was a traveller whose geographical work has translated into German by Mordtmann. When Istakhari was in the Indus Valley he met another celebrated traveller, list of Iranian scientists World Map of al-Istakhri Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. The Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume 6, de Goeje, M. J. ed. Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, vol 1, Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae auctore Abu Ishák al-Fárisí al-Istakhrí. The oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century, - Note, in fact, it is a work by Istakhri
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Al-Masudi
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Al-Mas‘udi was an Arab historian and geographer. He is sometimes referred to as the Herodotus of the Arabs, Al-Mas‘udi was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, a world history. Al-Mas‘udi states that he was born in Baghdad and that he was a descendant of Abdullah Ibn Masud, however, little else is known about his early years. He mentions his association with many scholars in the lands through which he travelled, however, most of what is known of him comes from his own works. Although Ahamd Shboul questions the full extent of al-Mas‘udis travels, even his more conservative estimation is impressive, Other writers include Sri Lanka and China among his travels. Lunde and Stone in the introduction to their English translation state that received much information on China from Abu Zaid al-Sirafi whom he met on the coast of the Persian Gulf. In Syria al-Mas‘udi met Leo of Tripoli, Leo was a Byzantine admiral who converted to Islam. From him the historian received much of his information about Byzantium and he spent his last years in Syria and Egypt. In Egypt he found a copy of a Frankish king list from Clovis to Louis IV that had written by an Andalusian bishop. There is not much known about how he supported himself during such extensive travels within, Lunde and Stone speculate that like many travelers he may have been involved in trade. Near the ending of the The Meadows of Gold, al-Mas‘udi wrote, the extant version is only an earlier draft from 947, not the revised 956 edition. Lunde and Stone note that al-Mas‘udi in his Tanbih states that the edition of Muruj adh-dhahab contained 365 chapters. They also note the stark contrast between contemporary European conditions confronting say the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and this highly literate Islamic world. Ahmad Shboul mentions the rich blend of Greek philosophy, Persian literature, Indian mathematics and this enabled the society of the day to manifest a knowledge seeking, perceptive and analytical attitude. There was an association of scholarly minded people in this highly civilized atmosphere. Al-Mas‘udi was a pupil or junior colleague of a number of prominent intellectuals, including the philologists al-Zajjaj, ibn Duraid, Niftawayh and he was acquainted with famous poets, including Kashajim, whom he probably met in Aleppo. He was well read in philosophy, knowing the works of al-Kindi and al-Razi, the Aristotelian thought of al-Farabi, al-Mas‘udis extant writings do not confirm his meeting with his contemporaries al-Razi and al-Farabi, however such meetings were highly likely. He does record his meeting with al-Farabis pupil Yahya ibn Adi, in addition he was familiar with the medical work of Galen, with Ptolemaic astronomy, with the geographical work of Marinus and with the studies of Islamic geographers and astronomers
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Hamdallah Mustawfi
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Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī was a Persian historian, geographer and epic poet who was descended from a family of Arab origin. Mustawfi is the author of Nozhat ol-Gholub, Zafar-Nameh, and the Tarikh e Gozideh and his tomb is a structure with a blue turquoise conical dome, at Qazvin. He also mentions that the people of Maragha, Zanjan and Ardabil had their own Persian dialects, verily God hath preferred amongst His creatures of the Arabs the Quraysh, and among the Persians the men of Fars, for which reason the people of this province. Were known as the Best of the Persians, list of Iranian scientists Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi at Encyclopædia Iranica
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Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
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Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, formerly Latinized as Algoritmi, was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer during the Abbasid Caliphate, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. In the 12th century, Latin translations of his work on the Indian numerals introduced the decimal number system to the Western world. Al-Khwārizmīs The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing presented the first systematic solution of linear and he is often considered one of the fathers of algebra. He revised Ptolemys Geography and wrote on astronomy and astrology, some words reflect the importance of al-Khwārizmīs contributions to mathematics. Algebra is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations he used to solve quadratic equations, algorism and algorithm stem from Algoritmi, the Latin form of his name. His name is also the origin of guarismo and of algarismo, few details of al-Khwārizmīs life are known with certainty. He was born in a Persian family and Ibn al-Nadim gives his birthplace as Khwarezm in Greater Khorasan, muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari gives his name as Muḥammad ibn Musá al-Khwārizmiyy al-Majūsiyy al-Quṭrubbaliyy. The epithet al-Qutrubbulli could indicate he might instead have come from Qutrubbul and this would not be worth mentioning if a series of errors concerning the personality of al-Khwārizmī, occasionally even the origins of his knowledge, had not been made. Recently, G. J. Toomer. with naive confidence constructed an entire fantasy on the error which cannot be denied the merit of amusing the reader. Regarding al-Khwārizmīs religion, Toomer writes, Another epithet given to him by al-Ṭabarī, al-Majūsī, Ibn al-Nadīms Kitāb al-Fihrist includes a short biography on al-Khwārizmī together with a list of the books he wrote. Al-Khwārizmī accomplished most of his work in the period between 813 and 833, douglas Morton Dunlop suggests that it may have been possible that Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was in fact the same person as Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir, the eldest of the three Banū Mūsā. Al-Khwārizmīs contributions to mathematics, geography, astronomy, and cartography established the basis for innovation in algebra, on the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written about 825, was principally responsible for spreading the Hindu–Arabic numeral system throughout the Middle East and Europe. It was translated into Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum, al-Khwārizmī, rendered as Algoritmi, led to the term algorithm. Some of his work was based on Persian and Babylonian astronomy, Indian numbers, al-Khwārizmī systematized and corrected Ptolemys data for Africa and the Middle East. Another major book was Kitab surat al-ard, presenting the coordinates of places based on those in the Geography of Ptolemy but with improved values for the Mediterranean Sea, Asia and he also wrote on mechanical devices like the astrolabe and sundial. He assisted a project to determine the circumference of the Earth and in making a map for al-Mamun. When, in the 12th century, his works spread to Europe through Latin translations, the Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing is a mathematical book written approximately 830 CE. The term algebra is derived from the name of one of the operations with equations described in this book
